HOME | DD

Description

The collection of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Heritage Center (Clifton Forge, Virginia) includes one C&O steam locomotive, the Class J-3a "Greenbrier" 4-8-4 № 614 (Lima 9306, 1948), which pulled passenger trains (e.g. George Washington and Fast Flying Virginian) until 1952 and then freight trains until 1956 following a couple of years as a reserve locomotive. With an output of about 5000 horsepower and almost 66,500 pounds of tractive effort, she was well-built for both roles. After such a short life in revenue service, typical of post-WW2 American steam, she was left sitting at the C&O locomotive depot in Russell, Kentucky for most of twenty years.

That changed when the B&O Railroad Museum acquired three C&O "Super Power" locomotives in 1975 -- 614, K-4 "Kanawha" 2-8-4 № 2705, and H-6 "Mallet" 2-6-6-2 № 1309 -- and brought them to Baltimore. C&O 614 left Baltimore in 1979 when the museum traded her for steam preservationist and American Coal Enterprises founder Ross Rowland's Reading 2101, and Rowland put her back in steam for a combination of test runs (in preparation for the unrealized ACE 3000 project) and excursion trains. Excursion service (more than twice as long as revenue service) ended at the turn of the millennium, and 614 remained at the Reading and Northern Railroad in Port Clinton, Pennsylvania for another decade.

The next major change in 614's history came when Rowland and White Sulphur Springs resort owner Jim Justice (now West Virginia governor since 2016) proposed the Greenbrier Presidential Express, a luxury train meant to connect the resort with Washington, D.C. C&O 614 was moved to the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke in 2011 and then to Clifton Forge, where the originally black locomotive was repainted green with Greenbrier Presidential Express branding (and the name of Justice's father James Conley Justice, Sr.) to promote the project. That train never ran and the project was abandoned in 2012 for various reasons related to finances and negotiations with CSX. C&O 614 remains at Clifton Forge, still wearing Greenbrier livery and still a candidate for another return to steam, and on a clear day has an excellent view of the landscape and the CSX line next to the museum.

Description

The collection of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Heritage Center (Clifton Forge, Virginia) includes one C&O steam locomotive, the Class J-3a "Greenbrier" 4-8-4 № 614 (Lima 9306, 1948), which pulled passenger trains (e.g. George Washington and Fast Flying Virginian) until 1952 and then freight trains until 1956 following a couple of years as a reserve locomotive. With an output of about 5000 horsepower and almost 66,500 pounds of tractive effort, she was well-built for both roles. After such a short life in revenue service, typical of post-WW2 American steam, she was left sitting at the C&O locomotive depot in Russell, Kentucky for most of twenty years.

That changed when the B&O Railroad Museum acquired three C&O "Super Power" locomotives in 1975 -- 614, K-4 "Kanawha" 2-8-4 № 2705, and H-6 "Mallet" 2-6-6-2 № 1309 -- and brought them to Baltimore. C&O 614 left Baltimore in 1979 when the museum traded her for steam preservationist and American Coal Enterprises founder Ross Rowland's Reading 2101, and Rowland put her back in steam for a combination of test runs (in preparation for the unrealized ACE 3000 project) and excursion trains. Excursion service (more than twice as long as revenue service) ended at the turn of the millennium, and 614 remained at the Reading and Northern Railroad in Port Clinton, Pennsylvania for another decade.

The next major change in 614's history came when Rowland and White Sulphur Springs resort owner Jim Justice (now West Virginia governor since 2016) proposed the Greenbrier Presidential Express, a luxury train meant to connect the resort with Washington, D.C. C&O 614 was moved to the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke in 2011 and then to Clifton Forge, where the originally black locomotive was repainted green with Greenbrier Presidential Express branding (and the name of Justice's father James Conley Justice, Sr.) to promote the project. That train never ran and the project was abandoned in 2012 for various reasons related to finances and negotiations with CSX. C&O 614 remains at Clifton Forge, still wearing Greenbrier livery and still a candidate for another return to steam, and on a clear day has an excellent view of the landscape and the CSX line next to the museum.